Climate Change

Progress at Bonn marred by old climate politics

Will negotiating parties be able to sort out their differences at Doha?

By Uthra Radhakrishnan

At the most recent UN meeting on climate change at Bonn, deep divisions that have existed between countries came to the fore, obscuring progress on the “delicately balanced” political deal that was agreed to just five months ago in December at Durban. As 195 countries gathered for the first time after the very important turnaround in Durban to negotiate a new deal for 2020, questions of how the burden of containing climate change will be shared resurfaced.

As climate talks at Bonn near conclusion, participating countries finally came to an agreement and adopted the agenda of the Durban Platform. Consensus on the agenda had seemed almost elusive over the course of the past two weeks of negotiations.

With just two days left for the Bonn climate meet to conclude, parties are yet to agree on the agenda for the coming year under the Durban Platform—an agreement that will bind all parties for the first time to climate targets.

Developed countries ask developing countries to do more to tackle climate change

By Uthra Radhakrishnan

Developed countries are slowly but surely pushing everyone to get on board the climate-pledge boat. The US, the EU and Australia called on the developing countries to step up their ambition to urgently limit the increase in temperature rise due to climate change to 2°C. They have accused many developing countries of not having submitted any pledges so far under the decisions taken at the Cancun climate negotiations in 2010. The US specifically picked on 28 developing countries: their income levels are comparable to the poorer lot of the developed country parties that have undertaken mitigation actions.

Workshop brings greater clarity on various approaches, but issue of double counting and disagreements on the role of UNFCCC still persist

By Hemant Nair

Disagreements on the role of the UNFCCC and tackling the issue of double counting rendered an otherwise fruitful workshop on a framework to organise various approaches on mitigation targets, inconclusive. The workshop held on May 19 in Bonn under the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) track, was mandated at the Conference of Parties (CoP) in Durban last year to enhance understanding of the fragmented nature of current global mitigation efforts.

But a workshop on equity at the climate inter-sessional refused to move beyond well-embedded party demarcations

By Uthra Radhakrishnan

It was India, which at last year’s climate negotiations at Durban had insisted on bringing the principle of equity back into the agenda for tackling climate change. The concept, which not so long ago had almost fallen off the climate agenda now features in almost everyone’s negotiation agenda at the mid-year climate change meeting at Bonn. The testament to its regaining relevance in climate talks was a day-long workshop on May 17 organised by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), exclusively devoted to debating the concept of equity.

Call to make equity and common but differentiated responsibilities central to future work plan

By Hemant Nair

Developed countries taking part in the climate negotiations currently underway in Bonn showed readiness to act on what was agreed to at the Durban Conference of Parties (CoP) last year. The common theme prevalent in the opening session of the Ad-hoc working group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) was this—let’s get down to work. The session which began on May 17, saw parties from both the third world and developed countries urging members to utilise this session as a starting point for serious action on climate change.

Two days into the ongoing negotiations at Bonn and the all too familiar rifts are visible. The primary disagreement is over how to move forward—whether to begin discussions from what was agreed to in the meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP) in Bali in 2007 or the Durban CoP in 2011.

The European Union (EU) recently issued a warning to two airlines from India and eight airlines from China for not providing their 2011 baseline emission data to it. The EU expected them to provide this data to set a benchmark for emissions from the aviation sector under its emissions trading scheme, commonly called the EU ETS.

Just ahead of the mid-year climate change session at Bonn, starting on May 14, the least developed countries (LDCs) have issued a call for efforts to be directed towards raising ambition on mitigation for the pre-2020 period, calling it the sine qua non of a successful outcome on the new Durban Platform negotiations.

The upcoming climate change inter-sessional at Bonn will take place from May 14-25. Following the decisions agreed to at CoP-17 in Durban, one more track, Ad hoc working group on the Durban Platform for enhanced action (ADP) will be added to the four existing tracks – Ad hoc working groups on Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and Long-term cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the subsidiary bodies (SBSTA, SBI). Under this new track, deliberations for the work plan on a future protocol post-2020 and the means to increase ambition will be carried out.